Andy Rooney, 92, leaves weekly ’60 Minutes’

After 33 years on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” and more than half-a-century after he joined the network, 92-year-old Andy Rooney will cease his weekly commentaries this Sunday.

“There’s nobody like Andy and there never will be,” Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes” said in making the formal announcement. Rooney will not be replaced in his end-of-program gig.

But the news of Rooney’s departure broke on the TVNewser website, where in an interview earlier this year Rooney said he would keep working for “60 Minutes” until he “dropped dead.”

Rooney will make it formal at the end of his 1,097th essay of the program Sunday night.

He has irritated some — notably feminists — and served as fodder for one of Saturday Night Live’s most memorable parodies on the rival NBC network.

Rooney began his televised essays in July of 1978, alternating every other week with the “Point Counterpoint” confrontations between conservative editor James J. Kilpatrick and liberal pundit Shana Alexander. “Point-Counterpoint” was also subject to memorable SNL parody.

Rooney was a war correspondent in World War II, who flew on the first 8th Air Force bombing mission over occupied Europe. He joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts.